October 17, 2011 - The Australian and International
Pilots Association launch a new website,
qantasshareholders.com, to provide information to
disgruntled Qantas shareholders on how to make their
voice heard at the Qantas Annual General Meeting (AGM)
on October 28.

Since launching the popular campaign site, AIPA has been
inundated with inquiries from Qantas shareholders
wanting to know how they, as shareholders, can send a
message of disapproval to management over plans to shift
Australian Qantas operations to Southeast Asia.

Qantas Airways is the flag carrier of Australia. It is
Australia's largest airline, the oldest continuously
operated airline in the world and the second oldest in
the world overall. Qantas headquarters are located in
the Qantas Centre in the Mascot suburb of the City of
Botany Bay, Sydney, New South Wales.

AIPA Vice
President Captain Richard Woodward said qantasshareholders.com
was aimed at assisting Qantas shareholders to send a message to
management that their current strategy is poison for the iconic
airline.

?AIPA has been hammered with calls and
emails from Qantas shareholders, many of whom are loyal frequent
flyers, as to how they can vote at the AGM to send a message to
Alan Joyce and his management team,? Captain Woodward said.

?That?s
why we are making this website public. It provides information
on how shareholders can sign a proxy and vote against key
motions in an effort to make management listen.

For
example, shareholders will be able to vote on Mr Joyce?s new $5
million annual package at the AGM. I would hazard a guess that
this sort of largesse, being splashed on a CEO whose strategy
has seen the share price tumble, would not be too popular.

New
revelations published about the astronomic salaries paid to
Qantas executives, including CEO Alan Joyce, have fuelled
further anger from the public today, who are sick of seeing one
of the last true iconic Australian companies mismanaged. Eight
most senior executives getting a pay rise of 62 per cent from
$8.9 million last year to $14.4 million this year. Qantas?s
annual report released shows Qantas CEO Alan Joyce salary went
from $2.9 million to $5 million at a time the company plans to
layoff over 1,000 employees.

?Most Qantas
pilots are shareholders too. This is a way that they can make their
voice heard. To date, the only forms of industrial action pilots have
taken is in-flight announcements promoting our website and ties with a
?Qantas flight, Qantas pilot? message.

Shareholders own
Qantas, not Mr Joyce and his outrageously overpaid team. There is a real
mood out there to prove that at the AGM and we want to help in any way
we can.

?Mr Joyce is
determined to make Qantas workers the fall guys for the airline?s
current woes. Well, we?re not playing into that. Shareholders will
ultimately decide the direction of the company and we are confident that
in the end they will show they don?t like Mr Joyce?s plan to offshore
Qantas any more than we do.

?The two key assets of the Qantas brand are its unique
Australian identity and its unparalleled safety record,
built by pilots and staff. Both are under threat due to
Mr Joyce?s strategy. To lose either would be
catastrophic for pilots, passengers and shareholders.?